"Bill 14, if passed, would force the Quebec government to evaluate all of Quebec's 90 official bilingual municipalities and remove the special designation if "it considers it appropriate in light of all the circumstances." LinkI'm not sure the above statement is government policy or a media interpretation of the PQ's new law which seeks to 're-inforce' the French language by further persecuting its English citizens.
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| Click to download a PDF of Bill 14 in English |
It reminds us that the law in Quebec protecting English rights in any particular town or city requires that the minority be the majority, a grotesque concept that defies the definition of what a minority actually is, a precept that utterly defies logic.
And so it appears that we are entering the penultimate phase of the struggle, a prelude to the very final showdown.
If the walls of Fortress English Montreal are successfully breached by a government bent on destroying the English community, it will mark the beginning of the end of the language 'war,' one that is to be lost because the side with the power, the resources and the numbers, just plain refused to defend itself.
For those in the Rest of Canada who tell the Anglos of Quebec to get the heck out and surrender our homes and lives, I can only register my profound sadness at the betrayal.
It is a particularly bitter pill to swallow, this exhortation to cut and run, a testament of cowardly abandonment.
It is as if a military commander has judged our forward position untenable and so strategically decided that withdrawal is the safest course of action.
If that is a metaphor that has credence, then how badly that commander has done his sums.
We are almost a million people.
More people than live in Ottawa, Winnipeg, all of Manitoba, or any of the Maritime provinces.
I couldn't imagine Canada telling the entire city of Calgary to abandon their home and move out without a fight.
It is true that more than half our community has left Quebec under the relentless pressure of language discrimination and visceral hate, the ongoing effort to linguistically cleanse Quebec of the English continues unabated with French militants at the barricades pushing for a re-doubling of the effort to rid us all for good.
All the while, Canadians stand by and watch the linguistic massacre benignly.
Everyday for the last forty years, English Quebecers and their language have been characterized by their own provincial government, whether that government was 'separatist' or 'federalist' as an insidious threat to the majority, to be controlled like vermin, with a view to driving the numbers lower and lower to the ultimate final solution.
How utterly incredible and sad to hear our fellow Canadians tell us that they would rather send a military mission costing billions and billions, not withstanding the countless lives wasted and ruined, to free Afghanistan from totalitarian rule, but somehow are not prepared to lift a finger to preserve the freedom of Anglophones to pursue their lives in peace and YES, in English, in a Canadian province that they did more than their share to build.
Worse in all this is the fact that Ottawa is actually financing the persecution, shipping billions upon billions of dollars each year from Canadians across the country to a government bent on destroying the vestiges of English life.
So thank you John in Vancouver, Mary in Edmonton and Richard in Peterborough for your overly generous tax contributions, sent to a province that uses this money to persecute and destroy your extended English family.
In the meantime, a snide and ungrateful Quebec recognizes this entitlement as an absolute birthright and mocks those Canadians who are so gutless that they would prefer to finance this cultural genocide, rather than rock the constitutional boat.
A harsh assessment?..I think not.
In all this, the separatists mock us, emboldened by Canada's weakness and so are encouraged to advance their cause in the face of so surprisingly little resistance.
Ironically, the very slightest pushback would send the separatists and language supremacists scurrying for cover, like rats in a dark room that suddenly has the light switched on.
When push comes to shove, Quebec cannot and will not stand up to a defiant Canada, the students demonstrated Quebec's true resolve.
It is long overdue for the Canadian government to step into the Quebec language debate with it's own language legislation.
Simple amendments to the Official Languages Act can require towns and cities to provide English or French services where numbers reach a more reasonable percentage, perhaps 15% or 20%.
Legislation could be added to allow English or French signage to be protected anywhere in Canada and the right to receive or dispense alternate language services be enshrined.
If the separatists don't like it, they can have their referendum, one way or another it is high time Canadians face down that blackmail.
Canadians can no longer pay protection money to keep Quebec linguicists satisfied, it is undignified and cowardly.
Take it or leave it, it is up to Quebec to decide. My guess is that when push comes to shove, the majority will choose money and comfort over principle, it is the Quebec way.
The question I put to Canadians is simple, because decision time fast approaches.
Are you going to help us or not?
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